Source: Courtesy of DaveCummings.com
By: Dave Cummings
Having just turned 63, call me senile or whatever, but I have a personal problem (and, it’s not related to sexual performance)! I’m writing this on April 1, 2003 at a time when America is stepping up to the plate to free the Iraqi people from Saddam’s persecutions, and to make the world safer for everyone, including the American anti-war demonstrators.
My problem is with some of the American demonstrators – I find it ironic that “demons” is at the beginning of that word, and “trators” at the end of it (at least it’s not spelled “traitors”!). I think that my personal problem with them and their vile is also felt by a huge majority of Americans who are disgusted by the subjective actions of some of the demonstrators, yet they seldom voice it as I am now doing.
Check out my Feb, 2003 column under the link to “Dave’s Column” at my DaveCummings.com and you’ll see that I have some personal experience in the Middle East. I also have invested 25 years of my life into supporting and defending the Constitution of this great Nation of freedom-loving Americans. I totally support and will defend everyone’s right to free speech, including the protesting American demonstrators.
I just wish they would use their heads, especially in this day and age when Homeland Defense against terrorism is so worrisome. Some demonstrators seem to be joining the ranks of the misled merely as a means to have what they might foolishly think is “fun” ball-busting the police; disrupting traffic and the lives of American workers and families; hurting the American economy and everyday lives; degrading the response abilities of ambulances/fire/police to emergencies and/or to protective duties against criminals and terrorists; and, possibly otherwise sending a connoted message to Saddam that the demonstrators support his suppression of Iraqi citizens.
Worse, it might connote to some observers and radical followers of Islam that America doesn’t support the American Military folks who are putting their lives on the line for Iraqi freedom. Yes, the demonstrators enjoy the right to be free to protest, but Saddam doesn’t allow the Iraqi people to have that same freedom – heck, he’s used weapons of mass destruction against his own people; recently, an Iraqi woman who was seen saying something to our troops was later reported to have had her tongue cut out by Saddam’s tyrants.
I don’t know about you, but I’m embarrassed that some American demonstrators are acting so stupid (and yes, even possibly UN-American) and are subjectively embracing the misled urgings of certain rock stars, movie stars, ultra-leftist teachers and “professional” protest-organizers who are using the demonstrators to fill their own personal and emotionally unbalanced need for attention/notoriety.
Why can’t the American demonstrators see through this? Why can’t they use their objective brains, and facts? Why can’t they see that the embedded journalists with our brave troops are insuring that we are indeed getting factual information and objective reporting, not the slanted and false crap being shown on some television stations and in some newspapers in some parts of the Islamic world?
Someday, even the radical and/or misled Islamic individuals, might become enraged that they have been so deceived by the lies they were told by their own governments and/or media about the present matters!
I feel that the American Military personnel are making unique sacrifices in Iraq in order to free the Iraqi people and protect American freedom against tyranny and terrorism. America is protecting freedom, including the freedom for American citizens to protest. In doing so, it protects the lives of the protestors and their children and grandchildren from the threat of radicals like Saddam who might destroy the very freedoms that the American demonstrators are taking advantage of in their present displays of reckless misjudgment.
I also have a problem with the way religious freedom is being challenged from radicals who want to force a certain religion or religious beliefs upon others. How can a religion use terrorism? How can people in this century still view war (e.g., jihad) as a holy way of practicing religion? In my view, in America, all faiths and religions get along well.
Like America, many other non-Islamic nations tolerate and indeed support the right and freedom of citizens to practice religion without persecution or preference. We want to be left alone, not pressured into Islam or any other religion. If I could wave a magic wand, it would be for peace for all peoples, including the faith of their choosing without any particular religion forcing its beliefs upon free people.
I will not be surprised when weapons of mass destruction are found later, once the Iraqi citizens are freed and start to supply us with intelligence. I will not be surprised when demonstrators become apologetic for their misled actions incident to them being subjectively influenced in a non-factual way. I will not be surprised to see that sex will again be the choice of viewing on television and computer screens, not an ongoing war.
We All need freedom, the right to practice (or not practice) whatever religion we prefer, the right to be free of terrorism, and the right to enjoy sex as a natural, normal, and healthy aspect of life on Earth.
Dave Cummings,
